Funeral services set for best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow

3:16 PM, February 12, 2012

Jeffrey Zaslow poses at Becker's Bridal in Fowler, Mi. Zaslow's book "The Magic Room" is about mothers and daughters who come to Becker's Bridal and what they wish for child's married lives. We visit the store Tuesday Jan. 3, 2012. / MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press Staff Writers

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Funeral services are set for best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow of West Bloomfield.

His funeral will be Monday at Congregation Shaarey Zedek on Bell Road in Southfield at 1 p.m.

Zaslow, 53, died Friday in an auto accident in northern Michigan, near Elmira, according to the Antrim County Sheriff's Department.

Police said Zaslow lost control of his car and was hit by a tractor-trailer on a snow-covered road. He had been in Petoskey for a book signing.

Zaslow wrote best-sellers such as "The Last Lecture," about a professor dying of pancreatic cancer and “The Girls from Ames," about 11 childhood friends in Iowa and their bonds while growing up.

Last year, he documented U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ recovery from a bullet wound to the brain after an attack that left six others dead. Along with Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, Zaslow coauthored "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope."

Zaslow first shot to notoriety when, as a Wall Street Journal reporter writing about a national contest to replace Ann Landers, ended up winning the contest to succeed her at the Chicago Sun-Times.

He was a Philadelphia native and married to Fox 2 Detroit TV news anchor Sherry Margolis. Zaslow is survived by three children Jordan, 22, Alex, 20, and Eden, 16.